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I am having a moment here aly and munching dick... Hmmm. Anyway!
Here is my take: As shows have evolved over the last 3 or 4 years, more and more stuff has happened off the show floor. The show floor is still an important place to visit at least once (to see what's up, meet people, etc), but there are many other parts to the shows now that didn't exist a few years back. Bars, social situations, hotel lobby, pool side, cabanas, and other events that are not directly on the show floor are now all powerful parts of the trade show.
This year in Vegas, it was very hard to get badges (and Aly knows how I felt about that one), and many people instead just set themselves up in the long hallway leading to the show and turned into show leeches. They saved themselves $250 and they still were able to do just about as much business as usual.
Last year in Florida, the leech factor was huge. Many people I saw "at the show" didn't have a badge, were sharing badges, or were using other tricks to get people in and out of show functions without paying. I truly think that about 20% of the people at the event were not actually part of the event.
The biggest mistake made is that the badge is for access to the show floor. In reality, the badge is your way of paying for the SITUATION created by the show. Florida more so than Vegas. It is a self contained adult webmasters and business person's best chance to meet new people, get deals done, and move ahead with projects. Cybernet, which is (from what I understand) a whole hotel takeover will be exactly the same sort of situation - a whole circumstance created to get you networking and moving ahead.
I don't like paying more. I don't like expensive drinks. I don't like "resort fees" when I know I ain't going to be resorting to anything other than the pool. I don't like that the changing buisness model of online adult shows is making it more expensive for me to attend.
However, the economics are there: less companies want a booth, more companies want social stuff, more companies want to do whatever, and as a result, all the income that use to come from floor space rental (at $2500-5000 per 10 x 10 square space) has to be picked up by the badgeholders and possibly by increased advertising space within the hotel. They too are running a business...
Am I happy? Nope. AVN tradeshow division needs to work harder to find other ways to make things work out, otherwise they may find themselves priced out of the tradeshow market.
Alex
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